Effectiveness of children's services planning guidance: consultation analysis

Consultation in Advance of Planning

The second part of the consultation focused specifically on the requirement for partners to consult others in preparing their Plans.

Q3. Does the statutory guidance provide sufficient advice on how widely you should consult in advance of developing a Children's Services Plan?

	Number	Percentage
Yes	32	67%
No	8	16.5%
No response	8	16.5%
Total	48	100%

Again, just over two thirds of respondents (67%) agreed that the guidance provided sufficient advice on consultation. Around one fifth (16.5%) did not agree and the remainder offered no response (16.5%).

Widening Engagement

In general terms, respondents welcomed that the guidance encouraged broad consultation:

"The current guidance helpfully emphasises, in line with the Christie, report that service developments must empower individuals and communities receiving public services by involving them in the design and delivery of the services they use; and that public service providers must be required to work much more closely in partnership, to integrate service provision and thus improve the outcomes they achieve."

Respondents were also asked how, if at all, the guidance could be improved to enable effective consultation and engagement with local stakeholders during the preparation of a Children's Services Plan.

Many again reiterated points made in response to the earlier question, around the need to ensure that marginalised and vulnerable groups in particular are considered equal stakeholders in the planning process and are appropriately engaged as such:

"We believe that the guidance could be more explicit in stating the need for planning partners to effectively and meaningfully engage with local communities, including children and families, in the development of the Plan, and that particular efforts should be made to engage the most disadvantaged groups, including families experiencing poverty."

Those living in poverty, those living with domestic abuse, those at risk of offending, those with physical disabilities and/or those with additional support needs were all seen as particularly important to engage. Those living in rural areas may be particularly difficult to reach using standard consultation mechanisms and may require special attention/different strategies to engage, it was stressed.

Consultation and engagement with local stakeholders should be relevant, diverse and adequately reflected in final Plans and some indicated that there was inconsistency with which the guidance had been interpreted and applied to date:

"…the views of certain groups of children and young people are not always being included in the current planning process. For example, vulnerable children such as those with disabilities and additional support needs appear in some cases not to have been included due to the lack of appropriate support during consultation and engagement."

To maximise engagement, approaches should be accessible, it was stressed, and this could be reinforced in the guidance:

"Consultations need to be soft touch, face-to-face and supportive and held in primary locations within community settings. The community needs to feel it is being listened to and supported in the design of future services."

Some suggested that Plans should go beyond being 'informed' by user voices and should be 'co-produced' with service users and saw this as something that the guidance should encourage (i.e. direct involvement in planning rather than consultation alone):

"We recommend that children's services planning should move towards co-production with communities rather than remain limited to consultation."

Encouraging partners to engage with the independent sector (including independent schools) could be advanced further in the guidance too, as well as engaging with parents (including Parent Councils):

"Local authorities need to find ways to reach parents, rather than the typical online survey hosted on their website consultation page that many parents aren't aware exists. At the very least these consultations need to be in easy read format, quick and straightforward to complete and heavily publicised where families are, for example parents suggested noticeboards in school playgrounds, supermarkets, libraries, community centres and public toilets; but also in local newspapers and on local radio as well as in leaflet drops."

Involving Children and Young People

Many welcomed the strong acknowledgement in the guidance that planning partners should give particular attention to obtaining the views of children and young people across all ages, socio-economic groups and types of need but there were also several views that this part of the guidance could be strengthened even further:

"We would like to see the guidance strengthened to advise that planning partners are expected to give particular attention to engaging with children, including those experiencing poverty, in the development of a Plan…In order to ensure equity and to develop services that truly meet the needs of all services users, especially those who are most disadvantaged, specific emphasis must be placed on the need to engage these groups meaningfully in service planning."

Several respondents felt that there was scope to highlight the importance of hearing children's voices more explicitly throughout the guidance, to ensure that partners do not view this as discretionary, but as mandatory. Some perceived that engagement with children and young people may be tokenistic, if not given more prominence throughout the guidance:

"There should also be stronger language in the guidance around involving children in the development of Plans, for instance echoing the wording of the statutory guidance on Part 1 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, which sets out the importance of involving children in developing Children's Rights Reports and potential processes for doing so effectively, ethically and meaningfully."

Again, advice on engaging particularly vulnerable or hard to reach children and young people could be enhanced:

"The guidance could be strengthened to make it clear that local authorities and health boards are expected to give particular attention to the views of children, young people and families. The engagement process should also be inclusive, and should pay attention to groups who are more likely to struggle with participation such as children with additional support needs or asylum-seeking and refugee families."

Examples of good practice for engaging with children and young people with lived experience already exist, especially in the third sector, it was stressed and these could be better utilised/drawn upon by planning partners. Making better use of Youth Councils could also be encouraged and account could also be taken of The Independent Care Review 1000 Voices - a local Champion Board. The Children's Commissioner 7 Golden Rules for engagement could also be referenced/included in the guidance.

Engaging Professional Partners

Importantly, variability in approaches to engagement were not limited to engagement of communities, but also to engagement of professional partners, including national organisations (e.g. Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA)) and local practitioners, such as throughcare and aftercare workers. Additional guidance on how all local planning authorities should equally involve such partners would be welcomed to ensure that Plans more accurately capture the realities of service delivery on the front line. It may also mitigate against local variability in delivery (discussed more below).

While it was appreciated that different local authorities would involve different partners, as appropriate, a general list of potential groups to be consulted may be beneficial, it was suggested. This should take note of the different capacity levels (e.g. paid employees in the public and third sector organisations compared to volunteers) and the guidance should continue to refer to the National Standards for Community Engagement, some stressed.

Again, greater aligning of service specific planning and reporting requirements would facilitate better and more consistent multi-agency working, it was suggested:

"Currently each professional area is required to report on progress and performance in line with their specific professional requirements. If there was a way of amalgamating the number of reports requires by Scottish Government across Education, Social Work and Health, that would be a significant improvement in relation to the promotion of genuine multi-agency working for children's services."

Outlining more explicitly the expectations and responsibilities of other lead partners, such as Police, the local Third Sector Interface and/or other statutory partners in terms of involvement in the development and consultation of the plan was also suggested. National awareness raising about Children's Services Planning may also assist engagement from stakeholders, it was posited.

One respondent also noted that it was equally important for local authorities and health boards to include their own staff in the consultation process and this could be presented in the guidance.

Sharing Methods and Signposting Support

Partners should be encouraged to share and publish the methods used to consult with the wider community or other service providers within their authority as part of the Plans, it was suggested. Sharing of methods may give others insight into new/different approaches that they could also adopt and would provide valuable context to Plans.

Indeed, offering more guidance around what is expected in terms of consultation was urged, in addition to signposting of support aimed at facilitating this task:

"We believe that the guidance sets out clear expectations that there should be consultation with children and families. However, we think it could be improved by providing or signposting to further advice and support on how to go about this, how to make it meaningful, and how to reach more disadvantaged groups. It should also reflect the challenges of engaging with young children, and support to do this effectively."

Providing sample consultation engagement tools or case studies of successful engagement approaches was suggested by many respondents. One organisation also suggested the development of a planning resource or toolkit which includes case study examples of good practice, specifically in key areas of issue for people with learning disabilities such as transitions and parenting.

Making additional specific support and guidance available to planning partners around how to undertake meaningful engagement with more disadvantaged groups and with children, in particular, was seen as key. To date, it was felt that community engagement often excluded the hardest to reach groups.

Having a checklist of who to consult was suggested, to ensure that there were no gaps. Many third sector support organisations, in particular, also expressed a willingness to share their existing consultation skills and experience with statutory planning partners to help them improve their own approaches.

Other Suggestions for Improvements

Other more general comments included:

• offering more guidance on time required to carry out formal consultation, including a timetable for planning engagement activities; and
• giving those named within Plans an opportunity to provide feedback/respond to the document following consultation.

"The document as a whole is large and involved and, on this basis, it could be off-putting or intimidating for some stakeholders, especially with newly involved individuals. If it has not already been done it would make sense to develop a consultation guide or worksheet in relation to the various sections of the Statutory Guidance. This approach would allow an experienced facilitator to lead consultation sessions with a clear structure and focus with an effective method of engagement and recording views and responses."

Overall, there was a sense that while the guidance was already strong in encouraging consultation, it could be strengthened to better guide practice (without being overly prescriptive). The tenet of the document could also be changed to make clear that consultation is only one part of a wider ideal for continuous involvement of communities in the planning process, building on existing strategies that are already employed locally:

"The 'consultation' in the preparation of a Children's Services Plan is one mechanism amongst a broad range of activities, practice and actions that seek to develop continuous dialogue and engage children, young people and families as genuine partners. Our own aspirations…are to integrate engagement and participation of children, young people and families into all aspects of our partnership activity - assessing need, feedback on services, identifying priorities and service development."